Monotonous, crazy, like a whirlwind of young life. "The waltz is spinning with a lovely sound"

Kinderdijk (originally Kinderdijk) is a small cozy village in the Netherlands. It gained worldwide fame thanks to the ancient windmills that were built here in the 18th century, but are still in operation.

Where is Kinderdijk?

The village is nestled 10 km southeast of Rotterdam and 60 km from Amsterdam at the confluence of the rivers Noord (from the west) and Lek (from the north).

Geographic coordinates 51.884643, 4.639409

Why are there windmills here?

The mills in Kinderdijk are not used quite for our usual purpose. They do not produce flour, but pump water.

As you know, the name Netherlands means “low lands”. In other words large areas countries lie below sea level. Of course, not like the Dead Sea, but still. There is always a possibility of flooding.

To reduce the water level, windmills were built in the area. They pump water from the polders into the sea.

Polders are drained, low-lying areas that often lie below sea level. In addition, these are extremely fertile lands.

To drain the land, a system of 19 mills was built from 1738 to 1740. They pumped out water using wind energy to operate water pumps.

It is the mills that help drain the lowlands here.

It is the largest collection of ancient windmills in the country and a popular tourist destination. Since 1997, they have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A little history

Once upon a time, the Netherlands (or rather the modern two provinces known to us as Holland) was a powerful maritime power. Therefore, they tried to use all coastal lands. Many areas were protected by levees, but there was always a high probability of groundwater flooding.

In this region, problems with flooding became apparent as early as the 13th century, as the surrounding areas were marshy areas. Initially, large canals called “weteringen” were dug here. They helped reduce the water level in the polders, but they were not able to drain large areas. Only a few centuries later they decided to build a complex of mills for drainage.

At one time, there were about 150 windmills in the surrounding areas of Alblasserwaard and Wijfherlenland. In the 1870s, their number decreased to 78. Now only 28 of these mills remain in the entire region. 19 of them are concentrated in the village of Kinderdijk.

In 1868, the steam engine came to the aid of windmills. In 1924, steam engines were replaced by diesel engines.

Although the windmills were replaced with more efficient diesel pumps, they are still in good condition. This is a backup option in case of breakdown of diesel pumps. But the last time they were used for their intended purpose was during the Second World War. Then the diesel pumps did not work due to fuel shortages.

Stone and wooden mills

Eight stone mills called Nederwaard were built in 1738. Wooden mills are called Overwaard. They were built in 1740. Nederwaard mills pump water from the lower polders into one reservoir, and Overwaard mills pump water from higher polders to another reservoir. Both reservoirs were previously used to drain water into the Lek River using special sluices. Today, modern pumping stations operate here.

The legend of the village of Kinderdijk

The name of the village can be translated as “children's dam”. An ancient legend is associated with the appearance of this name.

During the great flood of St. Elizabeth in November 1421, the polders were flooded. After the storm subsided, people decided to assess the damage and left their shelters. Approaching the water that flooded the surrounding area, they saw a cradle slowly floating. First, a cat appeared from it. She tried in every possible way to maintain the balance of her ship and gracefully jumped along the edges of the cradle. But imagine their surprise when it was discovered that a living baby was lying inside the absolutely dry cradle.

Such a miracle became a symbol of hope and life for local residents.

In the evening the mills are illuminated

Kiederdijk mills in tourism

Now these places are quite famous among travelers. Sometimes in the summer the mills start working again. But only to demonstrate a kind of attraction to tourists.

One mill has a museum that introduces visitors to the working principle of mill water pumps. In addition, the mill is quite spacious. The family of miller Miller Hook lived there with thirteen children. You will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the life and everyday life of this family.

Whole families lived in mills

In the visitor center you can see the old Visboom pumping station, which was replaced by the Overwaard pumping station in 1995. It uses impressive Archimedean screws to pump water.

You can take a pleasure boat ride around the reservoirs. The duration of the trip is up to half an hour.

But in winter, the reservoirs turn into an excellent skating rink.

Photographers will especially like the Kinderdijk mills, because they produce amazing and unique shots.

Vivid examples of the work of professional photographers

Holland. Accents, associations, the brightest strokes - the first thing that came to mind.
Eternal reveler, relaxed Amsterdam with its canals and “Red” districts. Almost unexpected love for Rotterdam. Admiration for the scale of the battle with water for every meter of land. Gentle sun, warming on the sandy beach of The Hague under the lapping of the waves North Sea. Regret about the failure with Dutch herring (it turns out that it is advisable to come to Holland in June for this). Wooden shoes at every step. Huge colorful fields of tulips. And, of course, windmills - there are more than a thousand of them in Holland.

They say that there is even a special holiday in this country - Mill Day (Miller's Day) - every second Saturday in May, 600 water and windmills open their doors to visitors throughout the country. Nowadays, mills are perceived as a symbolic Dutch pastoral, a decoration and a magnet for attracting tourists, but there was a time for them to work - grinding, sawing, but most importantly - draining spaces and pumping out water. So, with their help, man used the power of nature for good.

One of the places where tourists come to see mills against the backdrop of a typical Dutch landscape is the village of Kinderdijk.

I read on one of the sites: “The motto on the coat of arms of the Netherlands reads: “I fight and swim!”
You can't say it more precisely. The whole essence of Dutch life for many centuries.
By the 11th century, the Dutch began to run out of land. At first they fought for land using canals and dams, but later they learned to use wind energy and entire systems of pumps driven by windmills. Dozens of mills pumped water from canal to canal, eventually diverting it behind dams. This is how additional land arose, or in the words of Voltaire, “God created the earth, and the Dutch added Holland to it.”

So I’m going to Kinderdijk to see nineteen working mills. On a ship, along the river.
Water transport in the Netherlands is very important. Ferries, boats, water buses and even taxis in cities are common ways of transporting passengers, a Dutch everyday occurrence. And for us who come, this is also an opportunity to see Holland from a slightly different angle - from the water.

You can travel from Rotterdam to Kinderdijk by boat. You need to look for a berth not far from the Erasmus Bridge. I got a pleasure boat, delivering to the place, waiting and returning back. All the fun cost 15 euros.

There was a bar on board, and green tea and apple pie were found at the bar just in time.

At first, the passengers settled on the deck and did not have time to freeze.

The ship moves slowly around Rotterdam, huge barges and smaller vessels float past, and all this between the carefully fortified banks of the river.
Forest areas were also no exception.
It was not in vain, not in vain, that Peter I studied with the Dutch.

The boat ride to Kinderdijk took a little over an hour.
By the middle of the journey, the most persistent ones, those who were not afraid of the wind or the happy owners of hats, remained on the deck.
Soon the wind and rain completely drove the audience inside.

Arrived at the pier. The ferry in the photo transports passengers and cars from one shore to the other.

The mill village itself, marked by UNESCO, is about fifteen minutes from the pier at a brisk pace.
But we must take into account that it may not work out quickly; you are constantly distracted to photograph something from the surrounding “cuteness”.

Nineteen Kinderdijk windmills were built around 1740 at the confluence of the Nord and Lek rivers.
The main purpose of the local windmills was to regulate the water level in the river.
The mills themselves served as both a place of work and housing for local residents of Kinderdijk.

In 1997 Kinderdijk was listed world heritage UNESCO.

The word "Kinderdijk" is translated from Dutch as "children's dam". They say that the village received this name in memory of an event that occurred during a flood in 1421. The storm subsided, a cradle washed ashore, and in it people found a peacefully sleeping baby.

The mills in Kinderdijk are called "polder" mills. A polder is land reclaimed from water, drained and cultivated. Polders are located below sea level, so mills are needed to drain them. Such polders make up a decent part of the territory of the Netherlands. This is about the hard work, ingenuity of the Dutch and their painstaking creation of their country.

The inhabitants of Holland needed a water level control system to protect the land from flooding. To get rid of excess water from the Alblasserwaard polder, to which Kinderdijk belongs, artificial canals were dug. But later the channels became insufficient. A new way to keep polders dry was the construction of windmills. With their help, water was pumped and held in an internal basin between the level of the polders and the water level of the river.

But this is a glorious past, and the present of the Kinderdijk mills is to delight with the very fact of its existence.
Walking along the central paths is free, and you can get inside one of the mills.
Ticket price - 6 euros (April 2014).
You can approach the desired mill via a bridge.

They say that in winter the Kinderdijk canals freeze and become a natural skating rink.
Until the 20th century, skating along frozen canals was the most in a simple way get from one point to another.
And why are the Dutch successes in speed skating not surprising?

And here are the insides of the “tourist” mill.
Melnik and his family.

Everyday details of the life of the miller's family.

The whole life of the mill boils around a constantly rotating central pillar.
On the top floor there is a mechanism that sets the restless pillar in motion. You can see through the iron mesh.

Middle floor, beds in closets and other details.

Ground floor.
Kitchen, dining room, bedroom - in the complex.

Long winter evenings.

They say that by the position of the mill wings, neighbors could find out what was happening in the miller's family. If nothing extraordinary, after completing the work, the miller stopped the mill wings in the position of a straight cross - one wing parallel to the ground, the other perpendicular. The tilt of the wings could mean an addition to the family or the death of loved ones.

In the meantime, I examined everything and moved towards the exit.
And people still live in the mills, but this is a completely different story, closed from prying prying eyes.

A bicycle path runs along the canal.

You can also take a boat ride along the canal.

The time has come to leave Kinderdijk and on the way to the pier again look at the quiet, calm, not in a hurry of Holland.

All my life I've lived in absolute confidence that mills are built to grind flour. And only after seeing the world-famous Kinderdijk- a reserve of real ancient mills in the town of Alblasserdam, which is 20 km from Rotterdam, I realized how wrong I was.

19 huge mills, built in the 1740s-1760s, lined up along an artificial canal. Once upon a time, they rotated their wings day and night and pumped water from this canal into the nearby Lek River, whose level is higher, thereby protecting the surrounding fields and villages. Therefore, inside these majestic structures there are not millstones and flour, but giant wheels with metal scoop blades that spin in a narrow stone bag.

They "pick up" the water below, lift it and pour it into a gutter 1.5 meters higher. These 1.5 meters of difference between the river level and the space conquered from it are the price of life for many generations of Dutch people. After all, people first settled here in the 9th century, and the first mill for pumping water in Alblasserdam was built back in 1366.

Getting to Kinderdijk From Rotterdam you can take a bus, or even better, a boat. The journey lasts about an hour and it docks literally at the entrance to the park. You can simply stroll along the paths along the dam that separates the canal and the river. But it’s much more pleasant to take a boat ride along all the mills (ticket 3 euros), which departs every few minutes. You can also rent bicycles (one costs 2.5 euros; if you rent two, it costs 4 euros).

Although Kinderdijk is famous first of all, for its mills, but it can also be safely called a reserve of unafraid birds - only here I saw very close wild cranes or a beautiful crested grebe, who did not pay any attention to tourists, and only reacted disapprovingly to workers harvesting reed on the shore: this dried cane, as in old times, permanently cover the roofs of the mills.

Since the Dutch lived(and now live) in constant anticipation of floods, the ancient millers (those who watched the water, not the flour) never left their post. Their wives and children also helped them monitor the mill, rotate it with the help of ingenious systems of levers, and “catch the wind.”

Therefore in every mill there was a residential part. You can also see it in Kinderdijk. Entrance to the mill costs 3.5 euros. I strongly advise you not to miss this opportunity. We saw not only the mechanisms, but also the kitchen and children's rooms. Only instead of white aprons and caps, Dutch millers have a huge number of boots and waterproof raincoats in their houses.

And leaving the Netherlands on the plane, taking a last look at the country reclaimed from the sea, I understood why there are so many mills here and such a reverent attitude towards them. And now nothing has changed. Only instead of wind, the pumps are driven by electricity. The fight against water continues.

20% of the Netherlands' territory is below sea level, and 50% of the territory is only one meter or less above sea level.

The entire history of the Netherlands is a history of the struggle between man and the sea.

And despite the dedication and amazing tenacity of the people, man was not always the winner in this endless struggle. Therefore, the drainage system has a special important in Holland.

Residents have long needed a developed water level management system in order to protect large areas from flooding.

For the Alblasserwaard polder, this problem became relevant back in the 13th century. In order to get rid of excess water, it was dug a large number of artificial canals. However, while the drained soil was just beginning to harden, river levels rose due to river sand. After several centuries it took new way keeping polders dry. Therefore, it was decided to build a series of windmills capable of pumping water and holding it in an internal basin at an intermediate level between the level of the polders and the water level in the river. These mills are well preserved to this day and are located in the town of Kinderdijk near Rotterdam.

Parking at the entrance is paid - 5 euros regardless of the duration. Entrance to the wind park is free. But since there seems to be no other convenient way to get here other than by car, the parking fee is a disguised entrance fee. Although it’s probably quite possible to come from Rotterdam by bicycle, the distance there is about 20-25 km. At the entrance hangs a beautiful and detailed plan object, the same plan is handed over by the parking attendant after accepting money for parking.

And although the place is touristic, it is very beautiful and unusual. It's a pleasure to walk here. The real Holland - flat terrain to the horizon, a lot of water, many mills, one of which even spins! The place where the existing stereotype coincides with the surrounding reality :)

All these windmills were not used to produce flour, but to pump water. Wind energy is transmitted through a system of shafts and gears to a water wheel, which, due to rotation, pumps water from one channel to another, then the water flows into the river, the level of which is higher than the surface of the earth. There are physical limitations on the height to which one mill can raise water, so mills were often installed in cascades - each subsequent mill raising water higher than the previous one. In the 16th century, such technology was a real breakthrough and made it possible to solve the eternal problem of drainage. Of course, there is plenty of wind from the North Sea in Holland.

The mills are perfectly preserved, or perhaps simply restored.

This photo clearly shows the water supply to the mill.

This mill is operational, the blades rotate and you can go there to see how it all works.

You have to pay a few euros to enter.

1738! The blades rotate with a whistle, and the power of the wind energy is felt. If something like this hurts a person, it won’t seem like much.

To set the optimal position of the wind wheel depending on the wind direction, the upper part of the mill can be rotated using a special mechanism. It’s also interesting inside, everything rotates and works, the sound of water can be heard below - the mill pumps water. The furnishings of the 18th century have been recreated in the premises.

Input channel.

Most of the territory of the Netherlands is flat.

Nowadays, instead of windmills, electric or diesel pumping stations are used, which pump out water around the clock. I was surprised that at this pumping station the pumps are driven not by electric motors, but by diesel engines like those in ships or diesel engines. This is probably an expensive pleasure, pumping water with diesel engines, which have a limited service life, and fuel is not cheap these days. Although it is quite possible that this is just a backup station, which is put into operation when the main ones cannot cope, or if suddenly there are power outages.